Military officials are seeking to expand the training base at Fort Carson, Colorado by buying up 400,000 acres of Pinon Canyon (and as much as 2.3 million acres over the next 20 years). This land in rural Las Animas County is home to a deep tradition of farming and ranching. Local ranchers, typically supportive of the Fort Carson base, are now sporting “This Land Not for Sale to the Army”signs along their property boundaries.

Precisely where that additional 418,000 acres will be located is unclear, but the zone the Army is looking at encompasses 1 million acres, perhaps 5,000 people, two entire towns, three schools, two state highways and untold historic sites, including visible wagon wheel tracks on the Santa Fe Trail and dinosaur tracks.

For those not in the sites of the expansion, even Fort Carson officials admit that the planned expansion will have little or no economic benefit for the surrounding area.

One Response to “This Land Not for Sale to the Army”

Remember that “peace dividend” and all those base closings the leftists demanded? The troops and units then need new homes and places to train. The Army needs LOTS of space to drive tanks and fire artillery. If it’s not at Fr Ord, CA (high $ real estate) then it’s going/has to be at some other existing base. Read back thru your 1917-18 and 1940-42 history. Creating/expanding bases is not new. Neither is idiotic shortsighted base closing/downsizing.